South West Green Party

Local elections 2009

South West England mapThe Green Party gained its first seats on Devon and Gloucestershire county councils in the South West in the local elections on 4 June 2009. This brought the number of principal authorities with Green councillors in the South West up to four, the others being Bristol City Council and North Somerset Council, who already had one Green councillor each. The party already had a number of district councillors and town councillors across the region.

These are the party's first two county councillors in the South West: 

  • Paula BlackIn Devon, Paula Black was elected councillor for Totnes Rural after polling 32.2% of the vote, ahead of the defending Liberal Democrat councillor. She becomes the first Green member of Devon County Council. More...
  • Sarah LunnonIn Gloucestershire, Sarah Lunnon was elected councillor for Stroud East after polling 41.7% of the vote, ahead of the defending Labour councillor. She becomes the first Green member of Gloucestershire County Counil More...

Other highlights:

  • In Bristol, Green candidates polled in second place in five wards, ahead of the Conservative and Labour candidates, including a 31% share of the vote received by Daniella Radice in Ashley ward.
  • In Cornwall, Green candidates polled 26% in both of the St Ives divisions, placing them in second place ahead of the Liberal Democrat, UKIP and Labour candidates in both cases. In St Ives North, Tim Andrewes was second to the winning Conservative candidate by only 24 votes.

These results show clearly how many more Green councillors there would be if proportional elections were used.

In total, the party fielded 139 candidates across the South West region, for the four existing County Councils, Bristol City Council and the two new Unitary Councils, Cornwall and Wiltshire. Many of these candidates came in third place ahead of Labour.

Find more details below.